RACE - AN ANALOGY FOR CHRISTIAN LIVING

Urgency, Perseverance and Focus

August 18, 2019: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10; Hebrew 12: 1-4: Luke 12: 49-53

"Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us"(Heb 12:1), invites the Liturgy today! Race - is a common analogy that is used to refer to something that requires a relentless effort and an enormous endurance. Today, the Liturgy of the Word invites us to look at our Christian living in the light of this analogy. 

Christian life is a Race; Living the Christian faith is like running a race...which has its starting point and the finish line in the person of Jesus Christ - "the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith"(Heb 12:2). Given the situation of the Greek Culture that was just spreading its philosophical wings over that part of the globe where Christianity was emerging out of Judaism, it was easy for the people to understand the analogy of Race applied to the life of faith. The analogy seems quite prevalent that we see apart from the letter to the Hebrews that we read today; also St. Paul uses it with facility, in his letters to the Philippians (Phil 3:14) and to Timothy(2 Tim 4:7,8). Extending the analogy a little more, we shall try to understand our Christian life today. 

Christian Life is a Race, a race of Hurdles! Obstructions all along the way, does not in anyway hinder the progress of the athlete, the athlete has to jump over those and run towards the goal that is set before one's eyes. If at every hurdle the person contemplates a back off or grumbles over its presence, the race is lost and ruined. Jesus today warns us of such hurdles and Jeremiah is presented to us in the midst of such overpowering obstructions. But Christian life has to go on! Jeremiah, when he was finally lifted up from the dungeon, he went back to proclaim the Word of the Lord! Up and across each hurdle, our life of faith, moves on!

Christian Life is a Race, a Relay Race! We are not running alone, we are in a team. Some one has run the race before us and they have passed the baton on to us. It is our responsibility today to run and we will not be running it forever. We will have to finish our course and pass the baton to the next! Faith has to be lived, and passed on. In the encyclical, Lumen Fidei, chapter three Pope Francis states that those who believe are never alone, faith is always shared and it tends to be spread; it has to be handed on! The second reading presents this beautifully recalling to our attention that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses(Heb 12:1).

Christian Life is a Race, a Marathon! It is not just a sprint, that I strive for a short time and I clinch a victory; it is a marathon, it is long and it is taxing. Speed is not enough, it demands also stamina! Endurance and Perseverance are inevitable subjects of attention when it comes to our Christian life. In Jesus' footsteps, St. Paul too instructs us, in his letter to the Thessalonians - never to be tired of doing what is right(2 Thes 3:13) and in the letter to Timothy - to endure every suffering and carry on our life (2 Tim 4:5). At times it can be boring, tedious or exasperating, but our character rests in staying on the track!

Be it what it may, the analogy of the Race requires of us three important mindsets!

The first is a sense of URGENCY. The Gospel presents this with the image of FIRE. Just as an athlete needs the fire within to run, a Christian needs the fire within to glow in his or her life. The fire that Jesus came to set, and badly wants ablaze. Jeremiah had it ablaze within his heart (Jer 20:9), the apostles, the martyrs, the first Christian community - all of them had it so ablaze within them, that it consumed them and spread wild to the world. Do we have it in us?

The second is the strength of PERSEVERANCE. The Second reading presents it with the image of the BLOOD. In every race, there are those who are ready to beat us, to over power us - in our Christian life too there are elements that are on the prowl to beat us, to over power us - the element of sin, the element of godlessness, the element of materiality! A Christian needs to fight these elements constantly, struggle against them relentlessly, right up even to the point of bloodshed. 

The third is the sense of FOCUS. The first reading presents it with the image of the MIRE. With those around want us to fail, with the tiredness that catches on, with the target that lies quite away in a distance... there are chances for the athlete to lose heart. The training is to focus on the finish line! The darkness of the dungeon or the Mire that was all around, did not in anyway take away the focus of Jeremiah! He had his eyes focused from where came his help! The second reading has those phrases - "looking to Jesus"(12:2) and "Consider Him(Jesus)"(12:3), underlining the need for us to Focus on Him, who is our beginning and our end, our alpha and the omega, our pioneer and perfecter. 

With a sense of Urgency in our will to live our faith to the full, with the strength to persevere all trials and with our focus always on Christ - let us run this race set before us. We are not alone, we have the example and the help of those who have gone before us - the saints and martyrs. We have our brothers and sisters around us, united in the One Lord, to support us and sustain us. With the example and the help of the Crucified Lord who sits at the right of the throne of God, as the Risen Lord, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

Choose to be little!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 17, 2019: Josh 24: 14-29; Mt 19:13-15

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, declares Joshua before the people. He leads them by example! Just like Jesus who made it clear to the people that following him was not always a pleasure trip – ‘the foxes have their holes and the birds have their nest, but the son of man has no place to lay down’ – Joshua too makes it clear that choosing to serve God and giving a word on that, is a challenging task! 

To choose God, to choose God as the absolute, to choose God above all - these would mean today choosing to be little! Choosing to be little is choosing to be laughed at, choosing to be jeered at, choosing to be labelled 'conservative' or 'irrelevant'. I feel this much more in a context in which I find myself - the European West. This culture which was once upon a time so dominated by the God-talk, is today turning, if it has not already totally turned, Godless. 

It is not our task to be sitting in judgement on the people around, but to take into account our personal daily life, our personal choices and priorities, and the elements of our daily life that truly matter to us. There we will have a clue - do we want to be accepted by the world and found relevant to the times or do we want to choose to be little, to be that little flock that surrounds the Lord, like children who feel secure in the embrace of a mother? What would our choice be?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

A love that gives

WORD 2day: Friday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 16, 2019: Joshua 24: 1-13; Matthew 19: 3-12 

The gratuitous love of God and the conditional love of humans – that is the contrast that the Word brings to the fore today. Taking the reins from Moses, the young Joshua consolidates his people reminding them of the great history of faith and wonders that they have behind them, the great things that God had accomplished for them though they deserved none of them! 

The love that God lavishes on us, and the measure in which God does it, we do not deserve it at all. It is a gratuitous gift from God and God has never counted the cost, even to the extent of sending the only Son of God as a ransom on our behalf (cf. John 3:16). That love is the model set before us, by Jesus. 

When Jesus changed the commandment of Leviticus (19:18) from ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34), Jesus made a deliberate choice to propose God’s love as the model. Accepting one another, forgiving one another, being good to one another, wishing the good of the other with all one's heart – in all these we are called to measure up to none less than God, who is Love itself!

At times in problematic marriages, what we observe is exactly a lack of this. They say we were totally in love, until one day when we decided to break up! What is so painful to realise is that it was no love at all in the first place. They were trying to please each other or get pleased by each other - how long can that go? 

Any relationship which has to last for life should not be based on expectations and fulfillments, but be modelled on the love of God - a love that expects nothing, but gives everything!

CELEBRATING THE FRUITS OF THE RISEN LORD

August 15, 2019: Solemnity of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary

Revelations 11:19, 12:1-6,10; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26; Luke 1:39-56

"...The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages" 

These were the words with which Pope Pius XII in the year 1950 defined the dogma of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, in the document Munificentissimus Deus (art.40). Today's is a beautiful occasion when Holy Mother the Church invites us to celebrate as a solemnity on three major counts.

First of all, we are invited to Celebrate the Faith, the Faith of Mary, the young girl who cooperated with the Divine Plan and totally abandoned herself into the hands of God with her words - Be it done unto me according to your Word. The first concern for her was the Word - the Word of God which became flesh in her womb - and she became the Temple of God, the Ark of the Lord as we read in the first reading today. God acknowledged her faith, her response of faith, her obedience of faith with wondrous gifts! If the Immaculate conception is understood as the grace that God gave in preparation for her role in the Salvation history, Assumption can very well be understood as the reward that God blessed her with for her Absolute Cooperation! We are called to celebrate this faith, which Elisabeth acclaims in the Gospel today - Blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of what God has spoken!

Secondly, we are invited to Celebrate the Hope, the hope of Resurrection, the core of our faith. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in sin" says the part of the epistle that just precedes the second reading of today! Christ is the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ, we hear in the reading. God anticipates that for Mary as a sign of hope for us who belong to Christ, to show us that we are destined to be fruits in the line of Christ. Everyone who thinks and laments of death and the darkness of death, is today invited to open his or her eyes in hope and look at the fact that Christ has overcome death and each of us is called to overcome death, as Mary, a human being just like you and me, has overcome that death. Nothing, not even death has any claim over us... God alone, God's only Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ alone can claim us to Himself. We are called to celebrate this hope, which St. Paul affirms that death will be the ultimate enemy to be destroyed!

Thirdly, we are invited to Celebrate the Love, the love that God Almighty had lavished on his predilected daughter, the love that Jesus showered on his sweetest mother, and the love that the Holy Spirit covered the most beautiful handmaid of God with.  Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus (art.25), makes a splendid reflection saying, the primary reason for belief in the Assumption is "the filial love" of Christ for His mother. Mary herself knew how much God loved her - she proclaimed "My soul magnifies the Lord, for the Lord has looked with favour on me and done great things for me!" Just like Elisabeth who felt the blessings of the Lord by the mere presence of Mary, we too will feel that love, that favour, that blessings from the Lord, if we stay close to Mary, our sweet loving mother. 

Today, Celebrating the faith we are called to become like Mary, persons who listen to the Word and thus become bearers of that Word, like she became the Ark of the Lord! Celebrating the hope we are called to fix our eyes on the Saviour and ever yearn to belong to Him, so that we can taste the fruits of his Resurrection, as Mary participates in the fruits of the Risen Lord. Celebrating the love of the Lord, we are called to become personification of this love in our contexts, and inspire people as Mary did, to praise the Lord in the words that our Blessed mother gives us today - My soul Magnifies the Lord!

                               

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Choice to die was a choice to live!

Remembering St. Maximilian Kolbe - August 14, 2019

Deuteronomy 34: 1-12; Matthew 18: 15-20 (or) Wisdom 3: 1-9; John 15: 12-16

Maxmilian Kolbe, a saint of our times who is looked up with awe! He lived the Words from 1 John 3:16 to the letter - "... we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren." That is the sign given to us to testify for true love - as Jesus himself states in the Gospel, Jn 15:13 - "there can be no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." It is a choice that Kolbe made, knowing well what is going to be the fallout of that choice. Right enough, Pope John Paul II declared him as 'the Patron Saint of our Difficult Century'. 

A saint from the greatest of all tragedies of the just gone century in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, where Kolbe chose to die in place of another (Franciszek Gajowniczek, who was present at the canonisation of the saint). Let our love be genuine (Rom 12:9); but if it were really so, sure we will have to be prepared for hard times and painful experiences! Celebrating St. Maximilian Kolbe, is a challenge we accept to dwell on a man who did not just read the Word or hear it, but someone who lived it. He did it not for the sake of a duty or a work given to him, but for the sake of what his heart that prompted him to do for the Lord who loved him, exactly what the Lord did to him. 

That is why when Kolbe decided to die for a man whom he knew not, he did not consider that act a great feat. For him that was what he could do, all that he had to give at the moment was  his life and he gave it - he loved his Lord with the whole of his heart, with the whole of his strength, with his very life. The Love of Christ urges us!

A God right beside us!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 13, 2019: Deuteronomy 31: 1-8; Matthew 18: 1-5, 10,12-14

God goes before you, says the first reading! God comes after you, says the Gospel! A great piece of assurance today, as the readings together affirm the tremendous presence of God that accompanies us every moment of our life. God goes before us in our difficulties and comes after us in our failures! 

In short, the Lord is someone who lives with us everyday of our life and every moment of our days. Living in the presence of God, was the principal concern for Moses. It was the prime example that Jesus wanted to leave us too. We may think this is a very redundant and repetitive message - but if we are truly sincere and honest, this is a challenge beyond what we can imagine.

What does it mean to believe in a God who accompanies us all the time, literally, and not just a figurative sense of it? Are we truly living a faith of that sort? Faith in this perspective would become our awareness and acceptance of that presence. Prayer would become our readiness to involve the One who is present with us in our daily and regular chores. Communion would mean that we make no decision without consulting the One who is there present with us. Service to others would mean a spontaneous and selfless reaching out inspired by the summit of all goodness who resides with us.

Just imagine that mode of living: Faith, Prayer, Communion, Service to others, Celebration of the faith, everything will be totally redefined if only we undauntedly believed in the concrete presence of God with us every moment of our daily life. At times, we prefer a God who is far above us to a God who is just here, right beside us!

Half a Shekel or Life to the Full... a God-talk.

WORD 2day: Monday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 12, 2019: Deuteronomy 10: 12-22; Matthew 17: 22-27

I run every risk of being misunderstood if I write, Christians have to be people with a dual citizenship! With the pseudo-religio-political claims that prevail in our land today, that 'all Christians are westerners', the risk is real and concrete. But let me stay clear of it, by immediately explaining myself further that we are undeniably legitimate citizens of the country we belong to, but at the same time, we eternally look forward to the one that God has prepared for us (Heb 11:12). 

The first reading today underlines the primacy of God and God's place in our lives! In the Gospel, Jesus shows us an example of looking at everything in life, absolutely everything in life, from the perspective of God. Even a question of paying tax leads Jesus to reflect on the fact that we are sons and daughters of God, that we are free by virtue of our participation in the Divine Nature of God! 

Paying half a shekel was a duty of a slave, according to Jesus. That is not what is asked of a Son or a Daughter. While a slave intends to pay the half-a-shekel that is expected of him, the Son gives the entire life to the Lord, surrenders the totality of one's life, bringing that life to its fullness thus. So living a life that is worthy of God who has created me and loved me into existence, is to live a life filled with God, and live it to the full... not in terms of half-a-shekel!

The capacity of Jesus to move from the ordinary things of the daily life to a reflection on our relationship with God, is something amazing and something that we need to practice ourselves too. Let us at the end of this day, look back and see how many God-talks we were inspired to, all along this day.

COME HOME TO THE REIGN

Jesus invites us...

August 11, 2019: 19th Sunday in Ordinary time

Wisdom 18: 6-9; Hebrew 11: 1-2, 8-19; Luke 12: 32-48 

The theme of last Sunday continues today, with a little further deepening. Reading and reflecting on the readings of today and their theme, one could be reminded of the story of the Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. Certainly most of us know the story or at least have seen the film that first was produced in 1939 and a few other versions later. Little Dorothy Gale finds herself blown away to a land far from home and yearns to return home. She gets to hear of the one who can help her get home… the great Wizard of Oz and she follows the yellow brick road that leads to the Wizard, in the hope of meeting the Wizard to find her way home! On the way, she enters into the lives of the Scarecrow who lacks brain, the Cowardly Lion who lacks courage and the Tin Man who lacks a heart… and changes their lives for the better as she finds her way home! How close this fable is to our lives, as presented by the readings today!

The people of Israel are on a journey, yearning to enter the Promised Land walking with hope in the path shown by the Lord, says the first reading. This Promised Land is not merely the land that is flowing with milk and honey – explains to us the letter to the Hebrews – we are bound to the city built by God, the city that the Lord has prepared for us. The final chapter of the Pope Francis' first encyclical Lumen Fidei, was inspired by this part of the epistle – “as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. God…has prepared for them a city” (11:16). This God’s city, it is much greater than a worldly city we can think of or the perfect society one can dream of – it is the Reign of God.

In the Gospel Jesus invites us with his wide open arms, “Come Home to the Reign!” And Jesus shows us the way, the way we need to walk towards this Reign. All the way to heaven, is heaven they say! Hence the way to reaching the Reign is creating it all along the way we walk through in life. How do we do it, we ask! And Jesus has a simple set of directions in the Gospel today!

The First of them, REALISATION of the true treasure. Following from the previous week’s reflection, Jesus calls us to a clarity on what is the real treasure! Selling everything and giving to the poor, providing oneself with the purses that do not grow old, earning treasures that are not eaten by moth – all these mean a right understanding of what a true treasure is, so that our hearts may be sufficiently prepared and firmly set towards it. Abraham knew it and that is why he was prepared to give up even his only, beloved son! Abraham realized that God’s promises were much more dependable than all that one can possess!

The second is READINESS to receive the Reign from the Lord’s hands! Prompt to pick up the signs and challenges of the Reign of God, we are challenged to respond to the demands of the Reign at any time. It could be at home in the family, on the streets in the neighbourhood, at work in the workplace, amidst those who do not know Christ, in contact with those who do not believe in God, in the face of an injustice, in the wake of a conflict, in the presence of someone who is going through a crisis – wherever we may find ourselves, we are called to be people of the Reign. Reign of God is not merely a destination we are bound to, it is a situation we are called to create together as a family of brothers and sisters called by one God, our father and mother!

The third is RESPONSIBILITY towards brothers and sisters, to serve those around as the least of all, without counting the cost or expecting a return. Forgiveness, Compassion, Love and Service are concrete expressions of this responsibility. Being of service to the needy, being sources of consolation to the suffering, being the voice of the voiceless, embracing in charity everyone even those who hate us – these are the signs of the Reign and the ways of making present the Reign even as we journey towards the fullness of its presence! We cannot think of a moment opportune or inopportune for these… as disciples of Christ we are called to this responsibility 24/7 and every one of the 365 days! It is tiring and demanding – Yes! From the one who has been given much, much will be expected! There is no alternative! Let’s not be lost on our way to the Reign!

If we have to get home to the Reign… we have to realize what a treasure the Reign of God is, be ready to accept it at any point of time and carryout our responsibility on a daily basis – our responsibilities of love, testimony and service to our  brothers and sisters. Let’s walk dear brothers and sisters, in the way of Christ – let’s walk our way to heaven, let’s get home to the Reign!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Seeds of Self-giving

August 10, 2019: Remembering St. Lawrence, the Deacon-Martyr

2 Corinthians 9: 6-10; John 12: 24-26

The best of all giving, is giving of oneself! Giving of one’s abundance, giving of whatever little that one has and giving even if one does not have enough for oneself – these are praise worthy in their respective order. But the highest of all giving is Self-giving. 

Celebrating the Deacon-martyr, St. Lawrence, we are reminded of the early Christian communities that were so much characterized by persons who were blessed with the special charism of Giving of their own selves, apart from what they possessed. They were cheerful givers, and so we find their numbers kept growing unprecedentedly. The very spirit that they radiated held captive those who saw them and multitudes were drawn to emulate it. They were ready and willing to die to themselves that Christ may come alive in them! 

St.Paul’s words were true in so many of those early Christians – “I live, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20) and “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). These were not mere catchy sayings; they were true lived experiences and we witness it in great martyrs like St. Stephen, the apostles and St. Paul himself. 

St. Lawrence follows suit very closely later in the third century. After all, they had but one model who had invaded and conquered their minds, hearts and spirits - Jesus the ultimate personification of self-giving - the grain of seed that chose to fall to the ground, that it may abound in its fruits: we are the fruits and let us be worthy of the grain which has borne us. 

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Covenant, Call and Faithfulness

August 9, 2019: Remembering Edith Stein

The covenant that Israelites had with Yahweh was not formulated on some imaginary terms, but was established on a concrete experience of a nation walking into freedom. Neither is the covenant that we have with God based on an imagination – it is based on a concrete sacrifice of the Son of God, signed with the blood from the Cross and ratified with the death of the Lamb of God! 

At our baptism we have counter signed that covenant and it is upto us to honour it all our life. The terms are clear – to recognize the great deeds that God has accomplished on our behalf; to acknowledge the saving mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God; and to behold the great gift of Resurrection that is promised us in the hope of this covenant. 

We can behold that resurrection in the Risen Lord, if we are ready to participate in the life of the Son of God – a life lived totally in obedience to the holy will of God. Carrying the daily cross – is the readiness to face the hurdles of each day and continue to feel the presence of God beside; to remain steadfast to what is true, right and just, despite the consequences that might prove to be tricky or troublesome; to be ready to lose the whole world, just in order to gain one’s soul!

Only after having reflected on the Word, did I notice that the reflection suited so exactly the person of the saint, whom we remember today: Edith Stein, or St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross - a German Jew who found Jesus and converted to Catholicism, began living her baptismal calling at a deeper level becoming a Discalced Carmelite, but was killed by the Nazi racism on 9th August 1942, at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. She was so ready to lose anything to remain faithful to her call!